Rotary brush



F. RADCLIFFE.

ROTARY BRUSH.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13. 1919.

1,431,329. Patented Oct. 11922;

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

F. RADCLIFFE.

ROTARY BRUSH. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13, 1919.

1,431,329, Patented 001;. 210, 1922.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2. v

I i Illll Ihllll|lllllllllllllllllllllllll the invention there is provided Patented 0st. 10, 1922.

Lt; L32

FRED RADCLIFFE, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

R0 TAB/Y BRUSH.

. T 0 all whom it may cancer m1 I Be it known that FRED RADGLIFFE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, has invented new and useful Improvements in a Rotary Brush, of which the following is a specification.

The purpose of the invention is to provide a mechanical brush adapted for the purpose of cleaning clothes, shoes, and other kinds of wearing apparel as well as for scrubbing and for various other purposes for which a brush is useful. To carry out a rotatable belt like brush carried in the frame, there being operative connections between the brush and a suitable prime mover, such as an electric motor, so that it may be kept in motion-as the frame is moved to bring the brush into contact with different points of the object on which the brush is used. A suitable hand grip is attached to the frame for the purpose of permitting it to be conveniently. handled to bring the brush to the points to be cleaned b :it. 1

The invention is illustrated and described in a specific embodiment to which, however, it is not to be restricted. The right is reserved;to make such changes or alterations as the actual reduction to practice may suggest, in so far as such changes or alterations are compatible in spirit with the annexed claim. a i The same numerals of reference designate the same parts throughout the several figures of the drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the improved device.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the lower section of the device after the removal of the top portion therefrom.

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view.

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of F'i 2.

'iig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of F i 2.

s illustrated, the brush comprises a frame made of the sections 1 and 2, the former section being the main or body sec- 'tion and carrying the brush which acts as the cleaning medium of the device. The lower or body section 1 is of hollow construction, the bottom being open for the Application filed June 13,

i a frame and a a pulley 12 mounted 1919. Serial No. 304,079.

obvious purpose of permitting the brush to engage the surface to be cleaned. The brush is carried in a suitable compartment formed in the section 1 and on opposite sides of which the section is channeled as indicated at 3 to providecompartments for the driving medium of the brush. The compartments 3 are closed at the bottom of the main section by plates 4-, the latter being preferably of metal and being secured in place on the main section by appropriate screws such as those shown at 5.

Disposed in the main compartment there 1 are the rolls 6 each of. which is mounted on an appropriate shaft 7. The shafts penetrate the side walls of the main compart' ment in which the brush is carried and pass transversely across the compartments 3 to be journaled in the outside walls of the main or body section 1. The three rolls 6 are disposed one beside the other in the main compartmentwith division plates 9 interposed between them, these division plates extending transversely across the main section and connecting with opposite walls of the main compartment. They constitute the means by which the two parts of the main sections defining the compartments 3 are held together. These division plates not only function as means for strengthening the side walls of the main compartment against transverse'strains but also have their edges disposed adjacent the moving belt brush and thus maintain those portions of the belt between the rolls which it traverses in planes tangent with the rolls and thus function to keep the brush in working contact with the goods on which it is used throughout the effective or operative length of the brush.

In order that the rolls 6 may be operatively connected together, so that when the one turns its motion may be communicated to all, the shaft 7 of the center roll carries an appropriate pulley 10 over which there is trained a belt 11, the latter passing around on the shaft 7 on one of the end rolls. Obviously the turning of the shaft on which the center roll is carried will result in a similar movement being imparted to the end roll with whose pulley 12 the belt 11 is operatively engaged. The re maining end roll is driven through the medium of the shaft 7 carrying the pulley 12, this shaft carrying adjacent the end opposite that adjacent which the pulley 12 is on the outer face.

mounted, the pulley 13 over which there is trained a belt 14, the latter passing to a pulley 15 carried on the shaft 7 of the remaining end roll. Thus moton is communicated to the several rolls by the application of power to the shaft 7 of the center roll, whereupon the one end roll is driven with the result that it drives the other end roll, as is clearly apparent in Fig. 2 of the drawings.

On one side of the main section 1 and adjacent the center shaft 7 wh'ch projects through the side wall of the main section, there is provided a housing 1 1 in which there is carried a driving medium for the roll in the form, preferably, of an electric motor 15, whose shaft 16 has attached thereto a bevel gear 17 meshing with a bevel gear 18 carried on the projecting end of the center shaft 7, which projecting end is made square or polygonal in cross section to effectively engage the gear 18 to preclude any angular movement of said gear with respect to the shaft. The motor is readily started and stopped by means of a conventional form of push switch19. I

A brush 25is carried by the rolls 6 and this brush consists of a belt with bristles Obviously it travels over the rolls when the latter are rotated and in this way performs a brushing operation on any surface with which it is brought into contact.

The top or cap section 2, like the bottom of the main section, is hollow. It acts as a cover member for the brush and its driving connections and is attached to the main section 1 by means of appropriate screws 20 which pass through it and thread into the main section. The top section 2 is formed to provide a handle 21 which in the improved construction devised so that its longitudinal side walls converge toward the point of connection w th the upper face of the top or cap mem her 2. Thus the handle element 21 is readily grasped in the hand and by means of it the whole frame consisting of the sections 1 and 2 and the brush and its attendant parts which are carried by the frame, are readily moved over the surface to be cleaned or brushed and, the brush being rotated by means of the motor 15, the surface is cleaned without the necessity on the part of the operator of having to do more than to move the brush to the desred points.

The invention having been described, what is claimed as new and useful is:

A brush of the character described comprising a frame composed of two superposed sections, the lower section being divided by longitud nal partitions into three separate cpmpartments, transverse shafts journalled in the outer side walls of the outer compartments and passing through the side walls of the inner compartment, rolls carried by the shafts and disposed in the center compartment, pulleys carried by the shafts and disposed in the outer compartments, belts on the pulleys connecting the several shafts together, a belt brush traversing the rolls, the upper sect-ion having a handle element and being disposed to cover the three compartments of the lower section, and means whereby the brush may be put in motion.

In testimony whereof he affixes his signature.

FRED RADCLIFFE.

is made hollow but is.

for driving one of said shafts 

